Back to school for engineering

In My Humble Opinion
1

Any engineers in the house?

I’m 26 and graduated in 2005 with a degree in Agronomy. That’s the study of soils, plants, insects, and ways of dealing with them in an agricultural setting. I grew up on a farm and pursued this degree because I wanted to get into farming. I got out of college and worked as an agronomist for about a year. This was a sales role at a farmers coop. The money was good but I was not comfortable being a salesman. I returned home and was able to start farming.

I don’t farm very much, and I also work a full-time job, a rotating shift at an ethanol plant. I really do like my job but I miss the pay that I could be getting if I was in a role that I had to go to college for.

I also feel that something is missing from my life. I’ve always considered myself pretty intelligent, and I don’t feel I challenged myself pursuing my first degree. I love farming but it is very frustrating at times and kicks my ass physically and mentally. Also working that rotating shift means I’m typically working seven days a week and I’ve gotten off of many night shifts and gone to the field, being awake for nearly 30 hours at a time.

It’s coming down to me wanting to try something else. After the year 2015, I will have two major loans paid off and that will free up nearly $50,000 a year that I don’t have to put back into my farm operation anymore, so that I could quit my day job and just make a living off the 290 acres I bought on mortgage if I want.

I could expand the operation, but I have no idea where prices are gonna be in the next few years and how realistic that’ll be.

So I’m looking at possibly going back to college in a few years. Renting my land out or having it custom farmed for me. I enjoy plant operations and learning exactly how things happen at my job so that I’d like to gain a further understanding of things. Engineering is something that keeps coming up in my head.

I’m a nerd at heart and love math and understanding how things work and are built. I’m looking at potentially Civil, Mechanical, Chemical, and possibly even Electrical Engineering degrees. I’d be going to the same college I went to before and it looks like all my generals would be good but I’d have to speak with admissions people to be sure. If such is the case I’d be looking at 80 to 90 credits to get a bachelors.

For any of you that have such a degree and are working in that field, what are starting out opportunities like? Work schedule? Flexibility of hours? Work environment? Inside one office or travelling? Upward mobility potential? When I graduated from college I had several job offers of salary from $45000-50000, but those were sales heavy jobs. Are there starting out opportunities like that in the engineering game?

Any other advice you can offer me? Does this sound stupid? I know one guy I want to talk to is the plant engineer at my day job. I’d also like to shadow some guys in other fields if they let me.

2

Civil engineer here, worked for a city for 30 years, now retired. Civil engineering itself splits into several specialties, but you don’t necessarily need to decide which specialty to choose at first, until you figure which of the classes seem most interesting to you. Specialties include structural engineering and design, utilities design and construction (water supply, flood control, sanitary sewer systems, gas and other distribution systems), and transportation facilities, including highways, airports, and harbors.

(Say what you will about sewer systems, it’s bound to be pretty steady work.)

One angle you’d need to figure out at some point was whether you’re okay working for a governmental agency, or whether you’d prefer to work for a private consulting company. Consulting companies can do a lot of work for governments, so you could still work on government projects, but there’s still the choice of prefered working environments you to consider.

Another thing to consider is whether you’d be just as happy working in an office for most of the day, or whether you’d like to spend more time at a construction site. For office work, seek out design and project management assignments. For field work, seek out construction management assignments.

Depending on your farming experience, you could be pleased or horrified to find out that one semester for your BSCE degree will likely deal with “soil mechanics”. For CEs, soil (not “dirt”) is a pretty plentiful construction material, so we might as well learn how to use it.

3

I’m a mechanical engineer, and from what I’ve seen at my current and past jobs, from job hunting, and from talking to other engineers is that it can vary wildly. I work 40 hours a week and have no overtime and not real flexibility of hours, but some offices offer the 4 days- 10 hours a week schedule and you don’t have to work on Fridays. Some demand a lot of overtime work. One job I thought about applying to but then I saw that it was minimum 50 hours a week work.

There’s some jobs that are just primarily in the office, some that are mainly in the office but require some time in the field or in the shop, some that require you to often be in the field. Some with little traveling, some with constant traveling.

There is upward mobility potential, but it seems that’s more possible with jobs that are slightly less technical and slightly more working with customers or management type things. I’ve known several people to get their BS in engineering then get an MBA to go higher in their company.

It’s definitely possible to get a starting salary of $50,000 or above for a non-sales related job depending on where you are and what companies you are looking at.

Sorry to not have many real specific answers, but it’s just because it can vary so much. Part of the reason I chose to be a mechanical engineer is because they’ll always be needed, they’re in every industry, and there’s lots of locations for jobs.

4

I’m an electrical engineer in the auto industry. Starting salary for entry level engineers around here is usually between 50k-60k these days. The fact that you have some kind of post-college experience and maturity could bring a premium entry level salary. I typically work 40-45 hours a week. I travel on occasion, but since I actually enjoy the auto industry I don’t mind the travel at all. I get to see many OEM plants and tech centers. My schedule can be as flexible as I need it to be.

All that said, those kinds of qualities completely depend on the company. Same goes for career mobility, growth opportunity, etc. Luckily, I work for a pretty good company. There are engineers in every industry stuck at a crap companies with low pay, limited flexibility and long hours.

Engineering school is tough, so if you go for it, make sure it’s what you want. And good luck.

5

My niece just graduated from Rose-Hulman with a Bachelors in Mechanical Engineering. Before she graduated she had several job offers and went to work for Honda making something like $55K/yr. This is her first-ever job, never even worked part-time in HS. She had a great educational experience at Rose.

StG

6

Thanks for the replies!

I always figured mechanical engineering would be my best fit.

Does any engineering discipline require artistic ability or is that more of an architectural deal? I know the intern that we had at my job did some stuff with Autocad which does all the drawing for you right?

Is creativity a must?

7

Become a highly specialized nerd – consider seeking an advanced degree in Agronomy.

8

My younger son is in his freshman year of a biosystems engineering major. This might be a good fit for your background, as the discipline owes at least some of its basis and history on agricultural engineering. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Biosystems_engineering

9

Electrcial sure doesn’t. Can you draw zig-zags and curley cues? You can draw electronic schematics!
I wouldn’t say AutoCad and the other CAD progams do the drawing for you. They’re pretty complex. As an electrical engineer, you can use something like PSPICE where you literally just click and drag stuff onto your drawing.

10

The thought had crossed my mind but that would put me into a research or a teaching role, and I’m not interested in either. At least in an agricultural setting.

I’ve had my fill of dirt and plants so to speak. I want to try something different.

I only mention the artistic ability because I really don’t have any…

For any of you engineers would you consider your job to be a stressful one?

Civil Guy mentioned whether I’d be comfortable working for a municipality or government. I certainly would be, especially considering all the gravy that comes with a government job (benefits/retirement).

It’s good to find out that there are good starting out opportunities in this field. I know I’d be pissed to find out I spent another two or three years in college only to find out I’d be making the same amount of money that if I stayed at my hourly job.

11

Artistic ability isn’t a requirement for any discipline I know. AutoCAD and other programs don’t really do the drawings for you; it’s better than having to do the drawings on paper, but you still have to know what you’re doing.

Creativity is definitely a good thing for an engineer, but more in terms of creative problem solving than in artistic ability. As a an engineer, you might be given a problem that you have to solve, and creativity would allow you to come up with more possible solutions than the just the obvious ones.

Stress levels can vary. My current job is one I’m well suited for, and there are some stressful times, especially when there’s a deadline or something, but overall it’s something I can handle. My past job I was not well suited for and was never adequately trained, so it was extremely stressful for me.

Since there’s such a variety of companies and jobs, you can probably find something that fits you well and that’s not too stressful for you.

12

Mechanical engineer here…to jump into the AutoCAD discussion, you don’t have to have artistic ability, but it definitely helps to know the basics of sketching. For example, when faced with drawing a complex shape, you don’t try to draw the whole thing at once…you get the overall outline down, then bring in more detail by adding or removing lines and shapes. AutoCAD does offer blocks, which can vastly cut down on the amount of time spent producing blueprints or schematics…but you still have to create the blocks yourself. Once you know the basics of the software, it’s rather easy to figure things out on your own (or with various online resources)…just keep practicing. :slight_smile:

My hours are pretty standard (8-5). The pay is nice. There is no upward mobility at my current job unless I leave my department; however, there appear to be plenty of opportunities at other companies for engineers with advanced degrees or P.E. licenses.
The engineering part of my job rarely stresses me out…the part that gets to me is having to explain to customer service why I can’t sign off on an item for shipment, or finding out that a non-engineering manager has overridden a decision I made, or explaining to a non-engineer (and upper management) why it’s taking so long for our vendor to perform an analysis. Things that are instantly obvious and important to an engineer may seem trivial and/or hopelessly complex to someone outside of the profession. It’s also very frustrating to deal with people who just can’t believe that the little lady knows anything about an engine. :rolleyes:

13

A few things go on in the government side that you ought to be aware of. For one thing, if you want to see the range of salaries for an ordinary government job, that exact info should be available to you as public information. That is, your salary will always be public information. It could be a good bit lower than you might expect, because it’s figured to be offset by the widely discussed civil service benefits.

There’s a fair bit of complaining just now about how generous those benefits are. Various governments are doing the political thing and seeking to reduce those benefits. It’s easier to do that for new employees than for current employees, so heads up.

There are other perqs that you won’t get as a civil servant. No year-end bonuses. No stock options. No pay raises outside of the published structure of job classifications. If you work for a municipality, you don’t need to worry about what happens if management decides to relocate the corporate offices; doesn’t happen.

Different places have different rules, but where I worked a consultant could not so much as buy me lunch. The days of even one-martini lunches are long gone.

All that said, government projects are often where the action is. Every time some politician calls for more public works projects, civil engineers perk up their ears a little.

14

Just to throw my hat in the ring…

I’m 38. Went to school for Aerospace Engineering back in '93. For various reason, I didn’t finish. I eventually got into a career in Technical Writing, Marketing and more recently, Mobile UI Development. Last year I decided that I wanted to finish up my engineering degree, so I enrolled into my local community college and took a refresher course in Calculus II and a couple of other classes. Transferred this fall to my local state college to finish my degree in Mechanical Engineering, which will take a good 2-3 more years on a part-time basis.

My advice? Your courses will be** SO MUCH** easier if you have a strong foundation in Calculus, Physics and Differential Equations. If you haven’t taken them (or if it’s been years since you’ve taken them and don’t normally use it for work) take those first, and consider taking them at a Community College. The materiel is the same, the prices are cheaper and most importantly - the professors at community colleges tend to be more engaged with their students and enjoy teaching, In my experience.

Going back to Calc II after 17 years of not doing math more complicated than algebra and geometry was brutal! I’m taking Applied Statistics and Probability this semester and it’s already paying off. I’m enjoying it and it’s nice not to have the distractions that torpedoed my first undergrad experience. I just wish I had time to take more than 2 classes a semester but with a full time job and a family, it is what it is.

15

Ever considered going to work for a large fertilizer company? They could probably use people with your background and technical training. There are numerous global ammonia, urea, fertlizer companies.

16

Civil (Structural) Engineer here. Civils tend to be on the low end of the engineering pay scale, except perhaps for geotechnical engineers. I worked for a consulting structural engineering firm, and we were typically sub-contracted by the architects, and architects generally don’t get paid that well so we didn’t either. On the other hand, sometimes we were contracted directly by the developer and that paid a lot better.

I think mechanical engineering is a good choice - there’s a lot you can do with a mechanical engineering degree.

As far as stress goes, I think it depends a lot on the company but the ones I worked for had fairly high stress levels, especially when there was a deadline coming up.

I don’t think you need artistic ability but to do design (with the exception of electrical) you generally have to be able to think in 3D and have good spatial awareness. I did do a lot of drawing and sketching, but then again I was a design engineer.

I don’t think you need to be creative, but you should have very strong analytical abilities. Some of that is inherent, some is developed through engineering courses, and actual practice helps too. I’ve found that’s what really separates the engineers from the non-engineers.

The other things to consider are licensing and advanced degrees. For structural engineers, you generally need a master’s degree and it is assumed that you will get your professional engineering license at the earliest opportunity. Master’s degrees are less common in some other engineering fields and licensure requirements vary a lot too.

17

My alma mater actually has a pretty well regarded agricultural engineering department. Maybe something along those lines might be for you if you like farming and you like the rural lifestyle?

Other schools have them; a friend’s father was an ag engineering prof at Iowa State, so I know they do it, and I’ll bet almost all land grant schools do as well.

18

My girlfriend is working on her Ph.D. in civil and environmental right now. Civil and environmental have a reputation as the lowest paying of the various engineering disciplines, and that’s true, but it’s still pretty good pay. Your pay will go up dramatically in any engineering discipline with a master’s degree, and most master’s programs in engineering, I believe, can be completed in just a year or a year and a half. In addition, lots of programs seem to have some pretty good financial aid for engineering graduate students, and you might be able to avoid debt. For the love of God, don’t get any (more) debt.

19

What’s the dress code as an engineer of any sort of field?

One job that interested me was the Process Engineer that a lot of manufacturing plants like the one I work in have on staff. I think the guy at my ethanol plant is called the Director of Process Improvement. Anyone here know anyone that has that job?

I’m kinda looking at switching day jobs. There is an international company opening a new plant not too far from me and it says right there on their website that they offer up to $10,000 a year for employees looking to obtain advanced degrees/training. I’m thinking it’d be great to get on with them and let them foot the bill for a great deal of it, then keep working for them in a higher up position in a job that’s more fulfilling to me. I’ve already got lots of experience pertaining to what they do on the ground level so I’m hoping I can get in.

20

As news articles have regularly pointed out, there are many opportunities for engineers in the O&G field. If you like to travel/work overseas, there are quite a few engineering positions available. The starting salaries are getting close to USD 100,000 if you work in the US and can increase by 50% or more, depending on the overseas location. The good news is that all this can be had for just a BS. The downside is that hydrocarbons are usually found in less scenic locations like Texas and Angola